Thursday, August 15, 2013

Feature and Follow Friday #162

Welcome to the Feature & Follow

Gain new followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers -- but you have to know -- the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.

The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee's View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it'll allow us to show off more new blogs!

How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools -- keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them "hi" in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!

What sets this Hop apart from others, is our Feature. Each week we will showcase a Featured Blogger, from all different genres and areas. Who is our Feature today? Find out below. Just remember it is required, if you participate, to follow our Features and you must follow the hosts (Parajunkee & Alison Can Read) as a courtesy. How do you follow someone? Well, if you have a preference, state it in your #FF post. A lot of blogs are transitioning to Wordpress in which they do not have the luxury of GFC, so an RSS subscription is appreciated or if you choose an email subscription. If you don't have GFC please state in your post how you would like to be followed.

How To Become a Featured Blog?

We pick our featured blogs randomly each week from the blogs who participated the week before.Please be sure to feature your e-mail address clearly on your blog. Either on the main blog, on a Contact page, or on an About Me page. If I can't find your email easily, I will choose a different blog to feature.

I started blogging about a year and a half ago but it got forgotten in the rush of school. I picked it up and seriously started blogging about 6 months ago.

2. What is your favorite part of book blogging?

I love the people. I've made so many new friends I would have never found other wise
3. What type of books do you mainly blog about?

I do mostly young adult with romance being a must. I've recently started getting into the New Adult book too.

4. What is your favorite book(s)?

I adore the books by Devri Walls but Pushing the Limits and Anna and the French Kiss are amazing books also.

5. What has been the best thing that has happened to you because of book blogging?

I've gotten to talk to authors!! How awesome is that? I've found people like me who can't live without books. This is my world. I love it.

Q: Share something you’ve learned about book blogging or just blogging in general in the last month.

*FYI...I probably won't comment this weekend. I'm currently in Missoula getting ready to take the MPRE (the legal ethics test) on Saturday - the last step I need to get my license in Montana. And I need to study a bit.

Boy, I don't know. I can't necessarily nail it down to the last month, but here's something that I've gradually learned over the last year or so. Once you've been blogging for a certain period of time - 2 years seems to be a critical point - you will get tired. That doesn't mean you want to stop blogging or that you don't enjoy it, but it becomes a little bit more like a job after the newness wears off.

I've been blogging for over 3 years now. I love it and have no intention of stopping anytime soon. But I'll admit that it does become a chore at times. And I am lazier about commenting and even about posting than I used to be. What I've learned (or rather what I've taught myself) is to endure. My goal is to keep blogging and doing quality work, but also being a little more flexible with myself. A few days will go by where I don't blog or I don't comment. That's how I keep myself from getting too slogged down and wanting to quit.

Now for the Follow Fun!

With GFC going the way of the dodo bird for many bloggers, there is no better time to start following blogs via RSS feed. If you use a reader, it would be great if you followed my RSS directly.

We have a new button, so update your blogs if you are used to doing this meme!

RULES

To join the fun and make new book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:

Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. You can also grab the code if you would like to insert it into your posts.

Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say "hi" in your comments and that they are now following you.

If you are using WordPress or another CMS that doesn't have GFC (Google Friends Connect) state in your posts how you would like to be followed

Follow Follow Follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "HI"

If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the Love...and the followers

If you're new to the follow friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Next Week's Question:

Book Selfie! Snap a picture of you and your current read.

CAPTCHA:

I have an updated CAPTCHA post!

If you have CAPTCHA word verification enabled on your blog, please take it off. It makes it much more difficult for readers to comment. Please look at my CAPTCHA Eradication Post to learn how to get rid of it.

21 comments:

Yay! Are you suffering from blogging burn out? Take a 2 week long hiatus from blogging and see if that works. :D I'm not in the position to give advice though since I'm still blogging for around 4-5 months. :D But based from other blogs, they usually take hiatuses.

Great advice - I'm a new blogger and I've been pretty persistent, but when school starts back up for the semester I know I'm going to have to slow down a bit, or it will end up feeling like work right a way.

It happens though Alison! I went flat out in my first year, accepting everything, signing up for all tours etc, and was getting sick of it. I slowed down lately, and now I am really enjoying it!! Good luck on the test!!

I seem to hit a slump every 6 months. My next one looks to be in November, which is coincidentally when Nano starts. I'm trying to have most of the month pre-scheduled and just focus on other things instead of blogging. So, when I come back to the blog, I'll won't have technically taken any time off and I will feel refreshed. Well, except for the fact that I plan plowing through my 3rd year of Nano. Sigh.

I agree. I hope I'm still blogging in a little over a year, which would be my 2 year blogiversary. I am concerned that some major life changes that I have coming up will not only derail my blogging time, but also my reading time. I will follow your example though, and just give myself some flexibility.

Hey Alison, Happy Friday! I'm so happy that the weekend has arrived. Recently, because of attack on bloggers (due to plagiarism) I put up some new disclaimer on my blog. I never really had to do that before. But just incase I added them. I can't be responsible for a book that I received that I unknowing didn't know that it was plagiarized. If I accepted the book from author/publisher, I'm trusting them that it is their work.

Hey Allison, I'm a new follower! This is really great advice! I'm new to blogger so things are still new and scary for me! But I have started to enjoy blogging. Oh and by the way good luck in your test!:)

If you have time check out my FF http://wordswritteninblack.blogspot.com/2013/08/feature-and-follow-1.html

I am having a hard time getting the post onto my blog. I can get the list, but the button doesn't work. On this page there is not script for the button or else I am doing something wrong. Can you help? You can email me at shelffullofbooks@gmail.com

Hi Alison, I am completely new with this meme. I heard about it for a long time but never really understood it. It wasn't until my blogger friend explained it to me and said it was fun to join so I thought 'why not?'